 This video is part of a study series titled Biblical Salvation Settled Wonsome for All. Please see the playlist link in the video description. Hello and welcome back to you. So in this study, we'll be looking at John chapter 10 and we'll be spending quite a lot of time on this chapter. There's a lot of really interesting things to pull out of this chapter. So we'll be looking at the shepherd and sheep relationship between Jesus and his followers and what Jesus means by saying no man shall pluck us from out of his hand. And although at the very end, we'll briefly touch on this, but there's not really a lot to cover from this really, is that the Jews seek to stone Jesus because of his word. Now a lot of what we'll get from this chapter, we have already gotten from our study of John chapter 6 where we weighed the need eternal security versus conditional security and compared those two and how they actually worked. And John 6 actually gave examples of people who walked away from Christ. However, John chapter 10 is probably quoted more, particularly the verse about not being plucked from out of his hand. People are more likely to use this chapter when defending eternal security. But then people who advocate conditional security that we can lose our salvation, they'll have all the ways of trying to explain away some of those things in this chapter. And so what we really need to do is look very carefully at the shepherd and sheep relationship and see what that actually teaches us about salvation and Jesus' relationship with us in regards to salvation. So John chapter 10 really does complement John 6, which although I think John 6 is stronger in solidifying some of the doctrines, John 10 does give a really beautiful picture though. Okay, so there's a lot to pick up from that. So let's go ahead and get started. So introducing John 10, when we introduce this chapter, there's no new context to this conversation. So it carries on where we left off in John chapter 9. Jesus was talking with some of the Pharisees who interrogated the man who was healed from blindness, but then he told the Pharisees that they are not spiritually blind and so this remains, as though this is carrying on that same conversation. Now, later in the chapter, the context of where Jesus is talking and who he's talking to will change, and his audience will change to a wider group of mixed Jews. But it seems as if John groups those into the same area, putting that conversation immediately afterwards because Jesus continues the same theme and thoughts about him being the shepherd and his followers being the sheep. So let's just read through these verses one to ten first. So truly, truly, I say unto you, he that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber, but he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the porter opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice, and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me if any man entering he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. So that obviously that carries on after that, but we'll start with the first 10 verses. So Jesus starts this train of thoughts with the parable. Later he will continue the same theme of sheep and shepherd, but but not so much as a parable though. We're going to spend quite a lot of time on this thought is it's very important in understanding the role that Jesus takes versus the role that we take or rather don't take in a way for our salvation. And as I mentioned it complements John 6 in solidifying eternal security of the believer, but conditional security, you know, they'll throw all these other arguments against it. So we've got to be able to defend against those things as well. So first of all, with these first five verses, you don't need to be an expert in sheep farming to understand the imagery here. Okay, this is this is very simple parable a porter, someone controls a door or a gate, and he'll open the gate for the shepherd to go in and out. Whereas somebody who's not a shepherd, they cannot have access to this door. Okay, so any person that wants to get in but has no access through the door, they can only break in illegitimately to enter. Okay, that the thieves and the robbers if you will. Now the parable will be explained very clearly by the upcoming verses. We will see that the pasture with its sheep are a representation of the kingdom of God and those that will enter in with the shepherd. Okay, so why does Jesus use such an analogy of a shepherd and the sheep? Well, it's a simple enough concept to understand all times in history, both back then and today. You know, it's not some sort of futuristic concept like working in an office that would be unfamiliar to people back then. But it's still not an antiquated concept now, you know, it's not as if we don't know what shepherding is now. Okay. So it's a very good carnal or earthly illustration to explain spiritual heavenly things. It's not difficult to understand this relationship, even if you've never actually worked with sheep, but just a little bit of research on shepherding, you know, helps to explain some of the thoughts in this parable anyway. So the sheep, first of all, notice that the sheep in this parable are one dimensional. Okay. They belong to the shepherd. They follow his voice. The opposite of this would be the sheep that don't fit in this category. But the prospect of a sheep switching between these two is not really offered by this parable. So Jesus is the door by me. If any man shall enter in, he shall be saved and go in and find pasture. Okay. So according to the parable, the sheep follow the shepherd's voice, they flee from the voice of the stranger. So Jesus says this, this is his voice, and that's the voice that the sheep listened to. Okay. The opposite of that. So someone who was not Jesus's sheep is the one who follows a stranger's voice and does not follow the voice of the shepherd. Now, what's not offered by this parable is a sheep that belongs to the shepherd, but then suddenly stops following his voice and is disowned and you know, is discarded. That type of sheep is not offered by the parable. And so some of the arguments that are conditional security, we can lose our salvation advocate would throw at you. They'd have to kind of invent this type of sheep when it's not really offered by the passage. And so we must understand that there's really only two types of sheep here. They either belong to Christ or they don't. And that will help explain a lot of what's coming up later. Okay. So Jesus uses important salvation terminology here. He uses the word saved. Okay. And this is no indication that this is a physical salvation only. That you know, this seems to be an eternal life thing here. And he mentions life. And although he doesn't yet state that it's eternal life, this will be clarified later in the chapter in verse 28. And John has grouped these things together in his gospel. Okay. We saw in John 3 that being saved from the condemnation is synonymous with having eternal life. So salvation and having eternal life, we can use those terms interchangeably. Okay. Because they lock together. So we clearly see that eternal life and salvation is the specific context of this passage. It is the subject matter of what Jesus is talking about. And I just make a point of saying that because when I've confronted somebody about this chapter before as a proof text to One Saved Always Saved, they'll say, well, you're taking this chapter out of context. But that salvation is the context. Eternal life is the context of this chapter. Okay. So it's important when we understand that when Jesus is speaking specifically about eternal life and salvation, and when he isn't. Because if you don't know how to make this distinction, opposition can make, can use scripture against you if you're not familiar with it without to defend it. So one person might say this guy on the left, he might say, well, look, all throughout John's Gospel, Jesus repeatedly says, believe on me, have everlasting life. And if you've been following me in this study, we've seen that multiple times now. Okay. We've really drilled in this point. And then so someone on the opposite side might say, well, he does actually go on to say, go and sin no more. And if you love me, keep my commandments in John's Gospel as well. Okay. So, you know, it's not as if Jesus said those things in a different gospel. So, you know, we can't just say, well, in John's Gospel, Jesus said, believe on me. Well, no, because he also said, go and sin no more. And so, you know, what's really going on there. This guy will also say, well, we have eternal security because in John 10, Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life, and no man shall ever pluck them out of my hand. Right. But again, this is the proof text that we would bring for eternal security. But then someone who believes in conditional security, again, if we're still arguing from the Gospel of John would say that Jesus also warned in John 15 that if a branch does not abide in me, he is cut off and men cast it into the fight. Now, we have already explained this to some extent in our study of John chapter six earlier in this series. And so really, you know, this will complement a lot of what we've seen in John chapter six. But it does give us a new angle to look from because we've got the sheep and the shepherd analogy to help us understand this, this more. Okay. So first of all, these passages here like believe on me have everlasting life and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. These are passages that are demonstratively talking about eternal life. Eternal life is the subject of those verses. Whereas on the other hand, these passages like where he said, go and sin no more. And if you love me, keep my commandments. And if a branch does not abide in me, well, it's not really very obvious that eternal life is the specific subject matter of those passages. So if you're going to try and use those passages to override these passages, well, then we've got a problem because we know that these are dealing with everlasting life. Whereas these, we can't really say that so much. I mean, where Jesus said, go and sin no more or sin no more, he said that in John five, he said it in John eight. But in both of those dialogues with the people that he said that to, he never mentioned eternal life. He never mentioned believing on him. So going sin no more is not really an everlasting life salvation instruction. It doesn't belong with believe on me. It's not believe on me plus, you know, go and sin no more for everlasting life. It's believe on me for everlasting life. And on a different topic of conversation, not about eternal life. Hey, go and sin no more so that worse things don't come upon you. Okay. And likewise, if you love me, keep my commandments. That one really and also abiding me that that does need its own detail study because that's just a few chapters from now. It will hopefully get its own study in just a few episodes of the series. But again, Jesus talking to his disciples is not telling unsaved people how to be saved. So it's not obvious that they're actually eternal life instructions. Okay. Now, so, you know, just to summarize this, so John 10 28, I give on to them eternal life. We've got it in the verse. It's talking about eternal life. John 3 16, God so loved the world that he gave them the gone some that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Again, we've got those words there. We've got salvation terminology. Whereas when Jesus said abiding me or he is cast forth or go and sin no more again, you can see that eternal life or everlasting life is not mentioned there. Now, obviously, I've only quoted those verses. I've not quoted the passages, but, you know, in context, they're not necessarily eternal life instructions. And that's where people often get a bit mixed up. And that's why they get mixed up into work salvation because they don't discern between what is for eternal life and what isn't necessarily okay. So there's more that we can unpack from this parable. But we will hold on to that and come back to it because Jesus is going to continue the same themes. And we've got more to unpack about the sheep and the shepherd relationship. Okay. But as has become typical fashion for the Pharisees throughout John's Gospel, they cannot understand the words he speaks. Now, some parables are difficult to understand. And Jesus did evidentially use such parables to confound those who don't believe, like, for example, in Matthew 13. But this parable here about the sheep and the shepherd, it's not really very difficult to understand. Plenty of people would have been shepherds and farmers back in that day. You know, it was a very common profession. Jesus uses a fairly simple and easy to understand illustration here as to what's going on. But and even though he does go on to explain this parable to the Pharisees anyway, they still don't don't grasp it, even though it's not really that, you know, what Jesus is saying is too difficult to understand. It's not difficult to know what Jesus is saying here. They just don't grasp it because they won't accept it. Because they don't like who Christ is and that will become apparent later in this chapter. So here we see in verses seven and nine, Jesus says, I am the door. Okay. And notice what he says. All we need to do is enter in. It's that simple. So walk through the door, enter in, and he shall be saved and find pasture. So we've got a very, very simple instruction. So just like we've seen in John's Gospel, believe on me, have eternal life. Drink this water that I shall give and have eternal life or eat the bread and you shall never hunger. Very simple basic steps to enter into eternal life. There's nothing complicated about this at all. So just like with Samaritan woman at the well, all she had to do was drink the water. The Jews in John 6, all they had to do was eat the bread of life and believe or come to Jesus and they would never hunger. They didn't do that, but that's all they had to do. Okay. And all the Pharisees have to do in John chapter 10 is just enter through the door. That's literally all they have to do. Okay. Very, very simple language here. So quite consistently, throughout John's Gospel, which by the way, as I keep mentioning on this channel, it's written specifically for the purpose that we might have everlasting life. Okay. All we have to do is believe with simple metaphors and analogies to emphasize this point. So let's compare that. If we've got this simple passage, enter in. Okay. And that's that's all we have to do. Let's compare this with another passage in the Bible that people would twist and abuse to make salvation seem like it's it's difficult. You can't just enter in and be saved. It's more difficult than that. Okay. Well, Matthew 7 would be an obvious go-to passage. This is the passage that they would one of their first go-tos to prove that salvation is a difficult path, not an instantaneous step. Okay. So it's Matthew 7 13 to 14. Jesus says, enter you in at the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads on to life and few there be that find it. Okay. So some modern translations say that the way leading to life is hard or difficult rather than narrow which further fuels the idea that salvation is a difficult road rather than a narrow road. Or some people would say that that's a difference without distinction. So the ESV says hard is the way the new King James says difficult is the way the new living translation says difficult as well. So I don't speak Greek. This is second hand information. But a concordance check would reveal that this the reason these translations differ is that the underlying Greek word can mean some kind of affliction or oppression or tribulation or like pressing upon. So you can kind of understand why it's narrow or why it's difficult. Okay. A close exact English translation you might say we use the word constricting or tight which kind of those words combine narrow and difficult together if you like. So from a translational point of view you can understand why this is ambiguous between narrow or difficult even though these are not ambiguous terms in the English language. So then we must decide then is the road or the way or the path to life difficult hard to walk down or is it narrow tight to fit in. Okay. Which one is true? Well all we have to do is just look what it says. Look at the context. We don't need to understand the complexities of the Greek language even in English the context of the first proves that the King James translation is correct to say narrow because Jesus didn't say few there be that walk down it. That's not what he said. He didn't say few there be that make it to the end. He didn't say few there be that fight through all the thorns and thistles. He didn't say few there be that won't turn back the other way. He didn't say few there be that leave the road and take the easier path the wide path. He didn't say few there be that won't be killed by a wolf on the way. Jesus didn't say anything like that. What did Jesus say? Well it's perfectly simple. Few there be that find it. So the issue is that people won't find it. Not that they won't make it. Okay. So you know this is not that so few sheep will stay in the flock or walk with the shepherd down the rocky thorny difficult road all the way home. The issue is that so few people according to John 10 that if we match John 10 with Matthew seven so few people will find this door into the pasture and entering. Very few people were sorry I missed out the word for you there but very few people will find the true way in. That's what the issue is. Now once you found it well you found it that that simple those that find it enter into the door by the shepherd and they find pasture. So really simple to understand the difficult the reason why it's difficult to obtain eternal life isn't because it's hard to work for it's not because it's hard to achieve it's because so few people find it they can't find it that's the difficulty it's fine once you found it you enter in you found it perfectly simple it's finding it that's the problem for most people that's where most people stumble on. So we've you know we've got a very simple easy language here. So it comes as no surprise that that so few people do find this this way into life all throughout John's gospel all the Jews and the Pharisees were told to do is believe on him but they just wouldn't believe on him okay he only told them to do one thing and they just wouldn't do it no matter how many times he told them. Today we haven't seen Jesus' healings before our eyes but the Jews and the Pharisees saw the healings they saw the work that he did and yet they still wanted to stone him for claiming to be the Son of God and we'll see that later in this very chapter. Jesus said simply the truth shall make you free very simple statement but the Jews denied ever being in bondage to sin they could not even convince Jesus of sin when challenged to do so yet they accused him of being demon possessed anyway. So this same problem pretty much continues much today just in a different flavor the gospel is really not that complicated it's very simple it's just that for most people this idea that eternal life is a free gift it's just it's it's too good to be true for most people they just can't believe it so most people will not find the road to life even when it's right there in front of them okay. So let's just look at some examples of many people that can't find the way to life so the narrow way says that talking about John the Baptist's repentance when he said repent Paul said John baptized with the baptism of repentance saying on to the people that they should believe on him which after and that's on Christ Jesus that's Acts 19 for Matthew 21 32 says for John came on to you in the way of righteousness and you believed him not but the publicans and harlots believed him and you when you had seen it repented not afterward that you might believe him and then Mark 115 says the time is to fill the kingdom of God is at hand repent you and believe the gospel so the Bible says that repentance at least for salvation anyway is to believe the gospel now it can mean turning from sin in other contexts but not for salvation and Acts 19 and Matthew 21 32 prove that the repentance that John the Baptist was preaching was to believe on the Christ that should come after him. Now the many says the people like Ray Comfort will say well to be saved the first thing that you have to do repent is to turn away from your sins you have to say to God that you're sorry you're not going to sin anymore and then John MacArthur says that the predominant no Lordship view on repentance is to simply define repentance as a change of mind not a turning from sin or a change of purpose the no Lordship definition of repentance explicitly denies the emotional and volitional elements of Birkhoff's description of repentance so we see here that the Bible says repentance is to believe the gospel but the many here they won't allow the Bible to define repentance for salvation they've created their own definition what it means turn from sin so that they can justify their own obedience to come to heaven and then this like this guy John MacArthur he's trying to use Birkhoff's description of repentance as if that somehow qualifies that the no Lordship is denying its true definition but the Bible tells you what the definition is the definition is believe on Christ he's made it turning from sin and then he acts like everybody else has redefined it this is the problem this is that the many going into the wide road to destruction they've redefined repentance for salvation here's another example the narrow way says this is the father's will which has sent me that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day and then the Bible goes on to say I give on to the eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand my father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand we'll see that later in the chapter the Bible says that the father gives those to Jesus who will give you their eternal life and no man is able to pluck them from Jesus hand and Jesus will lose nothing okay now I've done some work exposing this guy and how he interprets the Bible and there was a video where he said well my logical thought process read these verses and it was thinking well well this said nothing about me walking away and we have all these warnings in the Bible about not falling away and persevering to the end well here's the problem those verses are not necessarily dealing with the same thing for a start that he's deflecting to but the fact that it says well these verses say nothing about me walking away well that's precisely the point why would they Jesus will lose nothing and so this is the narrow way but the many they won't trust Jesus to faithfully fulfill what he said he would fulfill they trust in their own perseverance they see Jesus's commitment to lose nothing through the lens of their own perseverance rather than seeing their own perseverance through the lens of Jesus's commitments okay here's another example so the narrow way for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast and that's Ephesians 2 and then Romans 4 says but to him that works not but believes on him that justifies the ungodly his faith is countered for righteousness even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto home God imputes righteousness without work so the Bible says salvation is by grace through faith without works because justification onto righteousness is by faith without works now the many all these false religions and denominations they all say salvation is by faith plus works now they won't always admit it to your face the Catholics and the Jehovah's Witnesses you know they'll try to pretend they believe it's a free gift but they really don't they just pretend that they do and here's another famous person it's always the famous people John Piper the pathway that leads to salvation is the performance of works the battle for obedience is absolutely necessary for salvation because it's the fight of faith well the many will insist that their obedience will pave their way to heaven they will like not accept they will not accept the free gift of God but the free gift of God is the narrow way they'd rather rather follow down the broad path so one more example so the narrow way says that we haven't read this verse in John 10 yet but we will get onto it in a few verses that Jesus says I lay my life down for the sheep the Bible says elsewhere hereby we perceive the love of God because he laid his life down for us got and God commends his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us the Bible is very clear Christ laid his down life down for us okay that's basic that's one of the basic premises of the gospel now there's this false prophet on YouTube called Michaela Cooper and I found this description in one of her videos that she basically says that all you need to do to be saved essentially well repent and believe on Jesus by fully surrendering your life to him then we get baptized be filled with the Holy Spirit and continuing Christ regeneration is the work of God and if something that happens in an instant if a person fully surrenders to Jesus the key is full surrender okay so uh the many do not accept Christ laid his life down for us they think they have to surrender their life down for him but that's replacing him as the Messiah okay this is really strange when you think about it because the Bible says that we are well we were dead in our trespasses so if we were dead in our sins how can we lay our life down that doesn't even make any sense so this fully surrendering your life it is such bizarre terminology to me and all you have to do is search a concordance and look for the word surrender and you'll notice that the lack of mentions of this word in the concordance okay this is not biblical terminology that keeps being repeated over and over again and so the many that follow the broad path they emphasize something that the Bible doesn't emphasize and they deemphasize what the Bible emphasizes the Bible does not say you surrender your life to Christ to be saved the gospel is that Christ laid his life down for you okay that's what the true gospel is with that in mind then as we return to our study of John chapter 10 we we will see it's very easy to understand the voice of the shepherd or the narrowway in Matthew's gospel versus the voice of the stranger or the broadway in Matthew's gospel the shepherd said who so ever believe within him and few there be that find it but the voice of a stranger says repent of your sins to be saved or you must surrender your life to Christ to be saved or few there be that make it to the end well that's not what the shepherd said this is what the shepherd said right here so when the shepherd says my sheep hear my voice becomes very easy to see which ones are hearing his voice and which ones aren't okay and so with with all that said and done then we start to see who the thieves and the robbers are in in this parable okay they won't enter the door by the shepherd they want to break into the pasture some other way trusting in their own righteousness and their own perseverance to hop the fence so to speak metaphorically speaking rather than just entering the door by the shepherd now very often in verse 10 when it says the thief comes not but to steal and to kill and to destroy this verse is often quoted as to as referring to satan and to an extent you can understand this because you know he deceives those who believe not and he tries to sew the seeds of doubt into prospective converts but verse 8 makes it very clear that there are multiple thieves and robbers okay there's not one so there's there's no clear proof here that satan is relevant to the conversation here and so when it says the thief comes not but to get steal kill and destroy it's not really obvious here that that's even referring to satan it's referring to all the thieves and robbers that are trying to break into this pasture or break into this place of eternal life rather than just entering in by the shepherd so let's just look at that in illustration okay so he that enters into the door into the sheepfold uh oh sorry he that does not enter the door he's him that climbs in some other way the thief and the robber so he he that enters in the door is is the shepherd of the sheep so Jesus enters the door his sheep are following him into the entrance Jesus said whosoever believes in me shall not perish but shall have everlasting life for I came to save that which was lost that's what Jesus is saying Jesus is entering into the door and the sheep that hear him and follow that voice they're going in the door by the shepherd okay that's how they're entering in and if they enter in they shall be saved and find pasture all the thieves and robbers well they're trying to break into some other way you know they say things like you need to repent of your sins to be saved or it's not enough to believe otherwise we could just sin and get away with it we can't let the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom before as you know we need to turn from our sins or this you know you need to surrender your life to Jesus to be safe business or you need to be walking in obedience every day to get your final salvation these are all thieves and robbers trying to break in their own way instead of just following the voice of of the shepherd and what he said to enter into the door okay so uh now here's a an interesting thing in verse eight he says all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers what what exactly does Jesus mean by that why does he say that um all who come before so it's that word before Jesus the thieves and robbers and uh you know didn't the old testament prophets come before Jesus or what about thieves and robbers that that came after Jesus okay well the key to understanding this is is the latter half of the verse that says that the sheep did not hear them okay now since the sheep belong to Christ in this passage uh Jesus is saying here that all that came before him uh that means that some of his sheep came before him chronologically on the earth not in heaven of course so before the time of Christ there were sheep that belonged to Christ in eternity they did not hear the voice of the thieves and robbers that came before Christ these sheep were the old testament saints and we know that Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world so you know that old testament believers they still followed Jesus even though they didn't yet know the name of Jesus okay so the old testament prophets came before Christ does that you know does that mean that their thieves and robbers then well no obviously because Jesus himself and Peter also said that they testify of Jesus so you've got like John 154 Philip finds Nathaniel and says on sin we have found him of who Moses in the law and the prophets did right Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph you've got Luke 24 27 and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded on to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself and Acts 10 43 to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins so all the old testament prophets appointing to Christ okay even though they came before him chronologically so we have just seen bearing man we have just seen examples of false salvation trying to get in without going through the door with the shepherd so we see this pattern of false religion and false salvation in the Old Testament as well though in the Old Testament it sometimes but not necessarily always manifested in some form of idolatry or enmity against God the Lord Jehovah and his people rather than Christ plus something I do which is more the New Testament manifestation you know in the New Testament it's Christ plus something that I do in the Old Testament it was all this idolatry well we can consider both the literal and the metaphorical application of what Jesus is saying here now literally we can see that there were thieves and robbers that that came before him chronologically metaphorically we can see that they were and still are thieves and robbers that that come before him spiritually so something or someone is put before Christ okay so let's briefly address the metaphorical interpretation first so for what we've just seen with the examples of the gospels of the many the wide gate versus the narrow way they're the type of people that come before Christ metaphorically so an obvious example that we looked at was when Ray Comfort says whenever he's giving the gospel quote unquote he says well first you must repent of your sins second you must believe on Jesus and so the logical conclusion of this is that you have to first clean up your life before you can come to Jesus well this is completely backwards to the biblical gospel okay you start with believing on Jesus you get saved and then we can talk about repenting of your sins and you know cleaning up your life okay so the way that he gives the gospel is completely backwards because he's putting turning from your sins before Christ when really that should come after Christ here's another example of a well-known old-time preacher Leonard Ravenhill saying very much the same thing actually when when he did a preacher on repentance he said he Jesus uses that word that nobody likes repent repent not only confess your sin but forsake your sin run away from it and then he goes on to say then Jesus comes up afterwards now I've done a video clip on my channel where I've shown him saying that and this then Jesus comes up afterwards is really bizarre terminology especially for a man that was lifted up as a great man of God to say that like Jesus comes up second okay and again it's the same thing you're putting your turning from sin before Christ well you're a thief and a robber okay you're not entering the door by the shepherd so this is where something else is taking the preeminence of Christ Christ should be the preeminence for our salvation but they're taking their turning from sins and their own works of obedience before Christ so you know that that's come before Christ the thieves and the robbers okay all that being said that we ought not to delve too deeply into the metaphorical or spiritual interpretation of what Jesus said because he didn't say all that come before me present tense he said all that ever came before me present tense and also hyperboleic is ever came so this probably lends more credence to a literal or a chronological interpretation of what he is saying rather than a metaphorical one so let's explore this momentarily so let's start with Cain and Abel so Abel brought offerings of his flock a pre-Mosaic Old Testament sacrificial offering foreshadowing Christ shedding his blood that's faith Cain on the other hand brought the fruit of the ground which he had till that's his work so you see that from Genesis 4 God had respect on to Abel's offering but not Cain's Cain was displeased all Cain had to do was do well in other words do whatever Abel was doing bring forth the offerings of the flock and he would be accepted but instead of doing this he slew his brother Abel and one John explains that he did this because he was a evil and Abel's righteous so this is an example of the thief comes to steal kill and destroy okay he could have just done what Abel's doing but that weren't good enough for him he went out and killed him okay why because that's what they do they kill and they destroy and then we saw Moses pleading with Pharaoh to set the Israelites free so that God could bring their physical salvation and send them to their promised land and in the Exodus story we see that it took 10 plagues before Pharaoh would release them and he still pursued after them now he could have just let them go after the first plague or the second or the third you know he saw the power of God displayed before him by Moses his sorcerers performing only cheap imitations really to mimic this power he did not repent on to salvation now he could have just let the people go saved Egypt you know all that trouble and himself an amount amount of suffering interestingly the option with the best outcome was the easy option okay so apply that to salvation the best outcome is the easy option but he chose the hard option which had the worst outcome okay and again the thief comes to steal kill and destroy during the Exodus journey in number 16 it was the responsibility of Aaron's seed to offer the incense but Korah and his rebels took it upon themselves to rebel against Moses and Aaron's authority claiming that all the congregation was holy and Korah took it upon himself to give the offering so he stole the responsibility that belongs specifically to Aaron and offenders were swallowed up by the earth and this is not too dissimilar from works based salvation today you know taking it upon themselves to do an offering in place of Jesus offering stealing the glory and responsibility that belongs to Jesus they take it upon themselves again the thief comes to steal okay fast forward somewhat we then see the attitude of the Jews and Pharisees in Jesus time that we've seen quite frequently throughout John's gospel they denied being in bondage to sin on account of but being Abraham's seed as if that somehow credited them for some reason we saw that in John A they frequently sought to catch or kill Jesus multiple times and obviously did eventually succeed why because the thief comes to kill okay and another way that you could look at this is Jesus role as the Messiah or the Christ so in the New Testament we have warnings about antichrists after his time and we know that the Old Testament prophets were looking forward to his day but there were there were actually many that came before them who who lifted themselves up having messianic or godlike complexes and they did deceive many but but they would not deceive God's true children so let's just have a look at a couple of examples so frequently in the Old Testament we see examples particularly in the prophetic books about the pride of various kings and how they would be brought down low so you know you've got like Ezekiel 31 prophesying against the king of Egypt who are you like in all your greatness you know who is like you in glory and greatness yet you shall be brought down okay and then you've got Isaiah 14 against the king of Babylon you know you have said in your heart I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will sit upon the mount of the congregation so these are all people lifting themselves up as if they were as good as God himself almost and so these are examples of people who came before Jesus they're all robbers and thieves they they weren't God's special person okay Jesus was God's special person and just a few hundred years before Christ as well Guatama Buddha the skinny Indian one not to be confused with the chubby Chinese one this is quoted the sutras that he says about himself the blessed one addressed him in the following standards I have overcome all those I am all wise I am free from stains in every way I have left everything I have obtained this about the other I have no teacher no one is equal to me in the world of men and of God's no beings like me blah blah blah you know it's all this I this I that and so again this is just another example of people that came before Jesus being robbers and thieves and you know sometimes the way Buddhists speak about Buddha is if he's almost like a Christ like messianic figure that you know he he brings salvation so he came before Jesus but he was a robber and a thief okay was Jesus that was the true messiah and so these are you know all those that came before Jesus chronologically speaking okay now returning to the passage then there's something that I want to point out here about the the terminology that the Bible uses okay so sometimes I would go to salvation verses may use indefinite terminology so notice that verse 10 says they might have life and might have it more abundantly so because it's might does that mean that maybe they won't have life you know maybe they won't have it more abundantly so let's explore this very briefly because if you don't know the Bible very well people with a false salvation they will use you know things like to get back at you and to trick you or you know come back at you so there are a handful of key salvation verses where it does use mites and maize and shuds instead of will shalls do's and ours so like 1 Corinthians 5 5 it says that the spirit may be saved doesn't say that it will be saved or that you've got John 3 it says should not perish and might be saved rather than will be okay or you've got 2nd Peter you know all should come to repentance doesn't mean that they will well first of all we must consider the necessity of the shuds and the mites and the maize because as as we have already seen few will find the narrow way to life okay so Paul advised the Corinthian church to deliver fornicators over to Satan so that their spirit may be saved because the church cannot definitely know in every case whether an offender is saved or is not saved okay the the offender described in 1 Corinthians 5 was worse than that of most unsaved Gentiles so he looked and behaved like an unsaved person but being a member of the Corinthian church it's possible that his spirit itself was saved so that that's one reason why it would use the maybe saved there it says in John 3 that the world through him might be saved because Jesus has done all the work that the world can be saved but obviously most of the world won't believe so that they shall be saved or will be saved uh the and then in 2nd Peter well the Lord is not willing that any should perish that all should come to repentance but obviously we know this is perfectly obvious that most of the world won't come to repentance even though the invitation is open to them okay and so you you can understand why we would use that terminology secondly um some of our maize and mites and shuds do have synonymous passages containing wills shalls do's and ours so yes in John 3 we've got should not perish and we've got might be saved but then all you have to do is read the next verse and it's he who believes on him is not condemned or you know he that believes not is condemned already so we've we've got definite terminology there and then later in the chapter you've got he that believes on the sun has everlasting life he that believes on the sun shall not see life so again this is again a definite has eternal life shall not see life and then you've got John 5 24 has everlasting life shall not come into condemnation but is passed so again we don't just have shuds mites maize we do have definite verses as well so it's important that you understand that so that you don't get caught out by that okay because people will use the mites and the maybes against you okay and that's exactly what we see here yes we have a might have in verse 10 but we have a shall be in verse 9 preceding it and then you know we'll also have a definite later in the chapter in verse 20 and he says they shall never perish it's not they might never perish okay so don't let anybody catch you out of that and I've not got a slide specifically on that you know just understand that when the Bible says we should do something versus what should happen when Christ or something well we know that Christ succeeded so if it's all who believe on Christ should be saved well Christ fulfilled everything that he said he was going to fulfill so it will happen whereas you know things that we should do well we know that we fail okay I've talked about that on my channel before I just haven't prepared a slide for that now let's go on to read the rest of the the next few verses up to 18 then so from verse 11 then I am the good shepherd the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep but he that is in hiling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep or not sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep the hiling flees because he is a hiling and cares not for the sheep I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and I'm known of mine as the father knows me even so know I the father and I lay my life down for the sheep and other sheep I have which are not of this fault them also I must bring they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd therefore does my father love me because I lay my life that I might take it again no man takes it from me but I lay it down of myself I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this commandment have I received of my father so with the hiling then it's not explicitly explained here exactly who hilings represent given how Jesus describes them they're not they're not exactly the same as the thieves okay so it's for this reason it's hard to describe them as false prophets because these would be more like the thieves or the wolves you might say well perhaps the highlings are weak Christians who will support you or other sheep when things are going well but for sake you when the going gets tough but but this is beyond what Jesus is actually talking about here so it seems here that Jesus is not using the example of a hiling to represent a particular type of person but rather he's emphasizing his own role as somebody who is the shepherd not a hiling okay so it's not who are the highlings it's who is the shepherd really so if Jesus says I will lose nothing and no man shall ever pluck them out of my hand we need to trust that he is a shepherd not a hiling and so he won't flee when he sees the wolf wolf coming he will fulfill what he said he will fulfill okay and so the key point here is that because Jesus is the good shepherd and not a hiling he is a trustworthy messiah you know he will put I am meant to put he he will not forsake us he will not lose us he will fulfill his end of our covenant that he will give us eternal life and shall lose nothing okay there there his commitments as the Christ and we've already addressed this when looking at the false surrender your life to Christ to be saved gospel but the very premise of the true gospel that we see here the shepherd lays his life down for his sheep Christ laid his life down for us so that we can be saved he surrendered his life we don't surrender our life to be saved all the sheep doing this relationship is they hear his voice they don't surrender their lives to the shepherd we'll look at what it does mean to follow him later in this chapter but the the sheep hear his voice and they enter in it really is that simple okay so and in verse 16 it's not entirely clear from John 10 itself what what Jesus means by verse 16 about I have all the sheep which are not of this fold they must be brought in and they'll be one fold and the most plausible explanation would be that if we take the Bible holistically from what we understand elsewhere in the Bible anyway is that he means the Gentiles the Gentiles will be brought in with the same house of Israel because John 10 doesn't provide enough detail here we can't really go into detail about it really but Romans 9 and 11 is a good passage to explain that in more detail so in summary Jesus mainly came to the house of Israel as we know from Matthew 15 24 but the apostles would go on to reach the Gentiles of which in Christ there is neither Jew or Gentiles it says in Romans 10 so that's what I believe verse 16 to refer to but you can't really get that from this chapter you have to look elsewhere in the Bible okay and then in verse 17 to 18 we see that Jesus had full control over his own life and death okay this is quite profound you know he shows all the more that he knew his mission at the cross he knew what he was going to do and he did it anyway he fulfilled it he kept his promises he did exactly what he said he would do now between verses 19 to 24 this is where the Jews divide over Jesus' legitimacy and Jesus is now preaching in the temple porch so I've not brought any verses out here because we don't really need to explore the sheep and shepherd theme from those verses but the context has changed Jesus is now in a different sort of a conversation with different people although many of the same people possibly but it's not necessarily the Pharisees specifically but rather the Jews generally but it's possible that John grouped this conversation right with what we've just read because of the fact that they continue this sheep and shepherd theme even though these weren't the same conversations okay so Jesus is revisiting the shepherding analogy and so let's just read through verses 25 to 32 so Jesus answered them I told you when you believed not the works that I do in my father's name they bear witness of me but you believe not because you are not of my sheep as I said unto you my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand my father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand I and my father are one then the Jews took up stones again to stoning Jesus answered them many good works have I showed you from my father for which of those works do you stone me and so we see from verse 26 Jesus said as I said unto you so he's dealing with a lot of the same people that he's dealt with in previous conversations they know who he is he's had exchanges with them before and you know he's really going over a lot of old ground with them really between verses 25 to 27 then people particularly those with a workspace salvation they'll define following Jesus in the context of his sheep doing the works and obeying Jesus various different commandments about this that and the other the problem with this view is that the very verses here tell you already tell you what what being his sheep and following him entails okay so who are those who are not his sheep okay in verse 26 he doesn't say but you turned not from your sins or you do not the works it's those who believe not so this is the problem with this group they believe not and so because they believe not they're not of his sheep so the opposite of that then those who are his sheep are those that hear his voice and follow him according to the next verse so the ones that hear his voice and follow him they believe him okay so there's those that believe him there's those that don't believe him those that don't believe him not his sheep those that believe him are his sheep so the works and obedient life of a believer is not being discussed here that's not the context of what it means to follow him okay nevertheless though and quite legitimately so you might ask the following question well if his sheep hear his voice and know him and they follow him and yes he told them to believe on him of course wouldn't the sheep also hear his voice when he said if you love me keep my commandments and go and and say no more and this is an important question it needs to be briefly explored so there's a side comment not not directly addressing the question but verse 27 is often paraphrased as saying something to the effect of my sheep here and obey my voice quite often people quote and I've done it myself just because I've you know it gets into your head when all you've heard other people repeat it we often quote it saying my sheep here and obey my voice but the word obey does not actually appear in this chapter he just said my sheep hear my voice and we only have the word follow to work with okay so we often talk about with questions like this we often talk about what did Jesus say so you know well he did say go and say no more he did say if you love me keep my commandments but what we often don't talk about is actually why did Jesus say these things or who and how for the what purpose did he say these things as well and this is often overlooked and so work salvation conditional security what what they do is they mix Jesus various commandments into a gospel requirement because they ignore the why or to a lesser extent that the who and how of Jesus says well Jesus said so no more yes but why did he say that or who did he say it to him for what purpose because it's again as we explored earlier in this video it's not necessarily about eternal life okay so if we are to obey Jesus commandments for salvation we need to understand what did Jesus command but also who and why did he command it okay so for example when we look at John 3 16 for God to love the world that he gave his own to be gone son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life well what is Jesus commandment and to who it's to believe on him and it's whosoever okay whosoever believes so whosoever is told to believe on him okay why did Jesus say that for what purpose did Jesus command this well it's to not perish but to have everlasting life that's what the verse says so your everlasting life is the purpose of this commandment right see that there and then here's another example John 5 24 truly truly I say on to you he that here's my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death onto life so again what did Jesus command us to do what's the commandment hear his word believe on him and again who is he addressing this commandment to he whosoever he is doesn't matter whether it's you over there you over there you right there whosoever he is you are commanded to believe on him okay that's that's who that's what why why did Jesus tell you to do this well again the same thing in John 3 16 for everlasting life to not come into condemnation that's the reason why Jesus commanded those things okay now that's some more examples so if we ought again we're obeying Jesus commandments well what did Jesus say but also why who for what reason so in John 5 14 it says afterward Jesus finds him that's the the healed man at Bethesda in the temple and said on to him behold you are made whole sin no more less a worse thing come on to thee so what is Jesus command if we're going to be the sheep that hear his voice and follow him well what is Jesus commandment well it's it's to sin no more but but who is this commandment addressed to this is very specific it's not whosoever sin no more that's not what Jesus said here he was specifically speaking to the healed man the man that he healed at the pool of Bethesda Jesus was not talking to a group of people in this exchange he didn't use language like whosoever will okay this was a very specific commandment to the person that Jesus was talking to now even that being said if you know if we apply that it means to us as well well why why did Jesus tell him to sin no more well he gave the reason in this very verse so that a worse thing something worse than being lame and stuck at the pool would come upon him now now people often automatically assume that means hell we did look at this when I did the study of John 5 but if it meant hell Jesus could have just said this right but you know because it would be pretty important if that was the case eternal life though was never mentioned it was never narrated in Jesus dialogue with this man if you look at the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda Jesus never mentioned believing on him never mentioned eternal life and he could have just said hell if that's what he really meant he could have just cut the fluffy language you know what's this worse thing that could come upon me if it says hell if it means hell just say hell but he didn't okay it's so that something worse than being lame at a pool would come upon you okay that's the reason why Jesus told him to do that so why would then if Jesus says sin no more and his sheep are supposed to hear him and they follow him well why do they follow him when he says that so that something worse doesn't come upon them okay it's not so that they would be saved onto eternal life that's not the purpose of that commandment and a very similar example John 8 11 she the woman caught in adultery said no man condemns me lord and Jesus said on to her neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more so again go from this place where they were and sin no more and again who was he talking to is he talking to a crowd no is he saying who so ever will no he's talking specifically to the woman who was caught in adultery that's the very very specific thing that she was caught in so again he wasn't talking to a group of people in this exchange now then why did you tell this woman not to sin anymore well for pretty much the same reason he said it to the man at the pool of Bethesda it's so that she would not be condemned by being stoned to death which could have happened in this event bear in mind she was almost literally stoned to death in this event so just like for the man it was less a worse thing can come on to thee well if she would have been stoned to death that would be a worse thing come on to thee once again if you read John chapter 8 if you read that story eternal life was never mentioned in the narration of Jesus' dialogue with the woman caught in adultery he never mentioned believing on him he never mentioned eternal life and if condemned meant hell again he could have just said hell but the condemnation the only context we've got from that story is that she was almost stoned to death a physical condemnation okay that's the only evidence that that's what Jesus means by condemning her not okay so it's not again it's not yes Jesus did command that but it's not evident that he told you to do it for eternal life though okay so very important to understand why did Jesus actually say something um here's more examples so John 6 29 Jesus answered and said on to them the Jews this is the work of God that you believe on him who we are sent so what is Jesus commandment and how is it carried out well in the context of doing works and bearing mind for eternal life because he's talking about eternal life we saw that when we dealt with John chapter 6 what are they told to do how do you do the work of God for eternal life well it's simple you believe on him who's he saying this to so a group of Jews and his many disciples many of whom actually there are disciples that believe not as we saw later in that chapter so that's who he's talking to and that's um how how do you obey Jesus commandment to do the work of God well you believe on him if we're talking about eternal life okay so once again why did Jesus say that for everlasting life so we understand commandments for everlasting life and commandments not for everlasting life now then uh John 7 17 if any man will do his father's will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself so what is Jesus commandment and how is it being carried out do the will of the father by going out and doing all these works and turning from your sins no that's not what Jesus said he said by knowing the doctrine okay why what's the purpose so that to know what that what Jesus says and does that he is of God Jesus is not doing these things as just somebody who's really good at miracles he's not just a man he is the Son of God okay and arguably this this ties in to eternal life even though that's not so explicit because obviously he's believing that Jesus is the Son of God that's assumed to be a given but he told you know the doctrine this is how you shall do the father's will to recognize the I Jesus and the Christ okay so that's that's the context of doing those things let's look at and this is my last two examples here okay so uh John 8 36 37 if the Son therefore shall make you free you shall be free indeed and that in context that's of your servitude to sin I know that you are Abraham seed but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you so what is Jesus commandment and to who did he say these things to well he said to be set free of servitude to sin by the Son okay and in the context the seed of Abraham claim won't give you an exemption to this servitude because when we did this study a couple of episodes ago we saw that the Pharisees and the Jews they claimed they weren't in bondage to any man but Jesus saying no you are in bondage to sin you need to be set free by the Son believe on me okay so why why did Jesus command this so that you would be free from the servitude of sin and to abide in the Son who is the one that will set you free from this servitude so verses here are often twisted to make it about you turning from sins to escape the bondage but it's the Son that sets you free your own obedience is not described here as the reason for being set free okay and then the last example John 9 7 9 11 go wash in the pool of Silo what is Jesus commandment and who to wash in a specific pool and who did he say this to he said who so ever shall wash in the pool that's not what Jesus said it was to the man who was blind from birth that's who we told that commandment to why for what purpose well for this man specifically it was to be cured of his blindness his salvation would not appear until later in that chapter but he did not recognize Christ at the time now obviously you wouldn't then read this verse and make a doctrine about how you need to go and wash in the pool of Siloam to be saved okay nobody would quote this verse that nobody that I know of who's not you know if the same person nobody would quote that verse and say well you need to do that to be saved so when people pluck out these verses like well Jesus says sin no more sounds like you know we have to do this to be well he also said go wash in the pool of Siloam have you done that okay well no you haven't again just like sin no more very very specific commandment for a very very specific person with a very very specific purpose so yes Jesus sheep hear and obey his voice and he did tell us to do a wide variety of things but why did he tell them to do that okay he didn't tell you to wash in the pool or sin no more so that you may have everlasting life he told you to believe on him forever lasting life so if you're taking the commandment to sin no more and you're making that about eternal life you're not obeying Jesus command you're not obeying his voice because you're using the commandments for the wrong purpose okay so we see although Jesus gave many commandments beyond just believing on him yes we've seen that for the purpose of eternal life specifically it was to believe on him and so that is how we must follow him for eternal life and again the Bible's perfectly consistent grace through faith not of works whosoever believeth on him shall have everlasting life okay now so here then when we get to verses 27 to 29 this is now the sort of climax of this exchange if you like so one of the most common verses quoted in the Bible used to demonstrate eternal security I've done that myself we all do it very much compliments absolute statements that Jesus made in John 6 so conditional security advocates will argue that we are quoting these verses out of context and we're misapplying what it means to be plucked out of his hand in other words you know this passage says nothing about me walking away it doesn't say that you can't walk away from Christ so that's some of the stuff that we've got to explore from this chapter now that we have all of the verses in this chapter about the sheep and the shepherd we fully understand this parable now we can explore this theme and it will help us to understand eternal security in this relationship and what actually happens quote unquote if a sheep does walk away so to speak okay so let we can explore this theme let's have a look but first of all let's recap and realize that there were only two types of sheep in this chapter that Jesus has conceptualized okay so there's the sheep that are not his which according to verses 25 to 26 they're the ones that see his works and believe him not okay now those that believe him but won't repent of all their sins that type of sheep is not even described in this chapter okay no mention of it at all that's not what Jesus is talking about on the other hand then in opposition to this we have the sheep that are his they hear his voice and they follow him and he knows them well who are they well they enter the door by the door all they have to do is enter in and they shall be saved according to verses 2 and 9 they will not follow a stranger's voice whose voice they do not know according to verse 5 so taking verses 25 to 26 is the opposite we can assume them that his sheep are they which believe on him and this is consistent with verses 2 and 9 that they enter in okay very very straightforward two types of sheep okay and so conditional security and that's to argue that we can lose our salvation what you essentially have to do with this chapter is create a third type of sheep that is never conceptualized at all and doesn't even fit in with the framework that Jesus describes and essentially what you're doing is you're inventing a sheep that belongs to Christ and is of his fold but wanders away and loses the protection of the shepherd well if they were of Christ's sheep they were saved then why didn't they hear the voice of the shepherd and follow it okay if they didn't hear his voice and follow him then they weren't his sheep why didn't Christ lay down his life for this sheep why didn't Jesus protect the sheep from wandering away Jesus said he is the good shepherd he knows his sheep he takes responsibility to protect them when he sees the wolf coming so they have to invent this third type of sheep that just doesn't exist in this chapter at all and if it's so important there's all these warnings that we can lose our salvation and this is such a key danger why doesn't Jesus even mention such a concept okay this type of sheep is not conceptualized in this chapter it's that simple okay so Jesus was very clear my sheep hear my voice I know them and they follow me and a stranger will they not follow that simple okay nothing really getting more complicated than that if they follow another voice then the only logical conclusion is that they are not of his sheep okay so Jesus whosoever believes in me may have everlasting life and I should lose nothing well my sheep hear my voice that's the voice that they follow any sheep that are listening to these other voices like you need to repent of your sins to be saved and if you don't turn from your sins you don't get born again or you need to fully surrender your life to Christ to be saved you know or Jesus will never leave you but you can walk away from him well fully enough we can't quote the shepherd as ever saying any of these things so if the sheep is listening to any of these three voices well it's quite simple you are not my sheep because you believe me not because they won't believe Christ when he said this they're following somebody else's voice these people they're not quoting the bible when they say these kind of things they're just quoting their own version of the gospel so this is the sheep that listen to different voices okay now one of the most common arguments that I've heard conditional security advocates throw is that a man uh again another spelling everybody a man has free will so he can choose to walk away okay that they constantly bang on about this free will argument all the time the problem is this is a this is a logical argument there is no direct reverse that can be quoted to prove this so you have to reason your way to that you can't prove that outright now we can understand the problem with the free will argument more clearly if we understand the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep okay so let's explore that theme and then we'll see why this free will argument just comes crashing down okay so typically sheep graze in a field and usually they do have some degree of free will okay you know that they can wander up and down here they can go left over here they can walk up there you know they've got a big field to graze in they can you know move about as much as they like so they have they have got some degree of free will it's fair to say okay but normally sheep are fenced in okay they're typically kept in the confines that the shepherd has placed on them they're not they're not supposed to be able to just leave okay so yes they do have free will to an extent but only within the confines that the shepherd places on them so they have free will within this space they don't have free will outside of this space okay and what does the bible said they enter in they find pasture this is their pasture okay so um also just sort of a note worthy kind of a side note if you like sheep are flocking animals by nature okay they would not normally choose to wander off on their own like a goat or a lion or something like that that's not really a sheep's nature sheep get very distressed typically if they're not with a flock they're flocking animals they stay in herds and crowds okay um in the UK uh parts of the UK where I live hill farming is more widely practiced and so this is where you keep sheep on more difficult terrain which isn't really good for very much else and sometimes they're not actually fenced in so that that you know they can climb up here go over there they're not fenced into the farm but again why is that even possible the only reason that even works at all is because sheep are known to heft to local areas so even if they had the choice to wander elsewhere even in an unfenced pasture they wouldn't normally be inclined to they still like to heft to preferred areas they still like to stay with the flock it's in their nature to behave that way okay so in other words you could give sheep all the space in the world and they still choose to stay in their preferred location so Jesus using the sheep and shepherd analogy uh on parable sets the foundation for eternal security Jesus the sheep hear his voice they follow him and even given the choice to wander off they would not necessarily choose to do this they stay in their flock where they belong because it's in their nature to do that so the idea of free will that a born again saved person wakes up one day and says you know I don't fancy this eternal life business to hell with that aren't you know I'm just going to wander off well that's that's very problematic it violates the very concept of being born again being a new creature why would you choose to walk away from everlasting life that's ridiculous and and Peter showed us back in our study of John chapter six that there is no where else to go he said Lord where would we go you know to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life there's no where else to go okay so free will it doesn't work so uh now in actual farming so if kept in confined fields sheep may eventually consume most of the flora and need to be moved to another field and this just helps us understand exactly what Jesus means in verses three four in night so you know he says the porter opens the sheep here he calls out his own sheep he leads them out they go be uh he goes before them and they follow him and then he says I am the door if any man entering he shall be saved any and notice it says he shall go in and out well if you've entered into eternal life why would you go in and out in and out but notice how he says that he says they go in and out and whether they go in whether they go out they find pasture okay so you know if you're in eternal life why would you go in and out well that that all he's doing is just you know people understand how shepherding works this makes perfect sense they go in here they find pasture they come out of here and go in there they find pasture okay and the shepherd has to lead them between fields because that's what the shepherd has to do okay and this just helps us to understand what it means to follow Jesus and what would happen if a sheep went astray okay so then well what happens if a sheep wanders away from the flock well does it lose its salvation according to conditional security or in the one saved always saved model might you say that well the sheep was never saved to begin with well you might also ask will it be devoured by the wolf that Jesus mentioned in verse 12 so let's explore what happens there so in John 10 Jesus does not discuss the prospect of a lost sheep so from John 10 itself there's no clear teaching available from here that explains what would happen if a sheep wanders away okay what we can do if we like we can some help from the other gospels where Jesus did talk about this concept but we must understand before we read them the context of the parable of the lost sheep is different to what he's talking about in John chapter 10 very important that you understand that okay so in Matthews and Luke's gospel the parable of the lost sheep it really refers more to Jesus going out and reaching the lost you know those outside rather than those who are already inside going astray now we'll try to apply it to John chapter 10 but it is a different conversation that Jesus is having here so you know Jesus says I'll just read one of them that if any if any man you know if any man has a hundred sheep whoever he is a notice who doesn't say me is any man including you has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray does he not leave the 99 goes out into the mountains and seeks that which is gone astray and then if he finds it he rejoices okay and so both parables in both examples they read slightly differently because the slightly different conversations but the word is slightly different but it's the same principle if you even if you have a hundred sheep and you lose one you will you will go out and and get it okay so Jesus asks that question he asks that question rhetorically which man would not leave the 99 sheep to go out into the mountains or the wilderness to find that that one stray sheep and notice that it's not just Jesus which man any man including you would do this so it's not just well Jesus is a good shepherd so he would go and do it no you would do this as well even if you had a hundred sheep you would still go out for that lost sheep okay so it stands to reason you will do it well so will Jesus okay now then ask this question it why would any man if you have 99 perfectly good sheep why would you even bother to go out for one sheep at all why not just cut your losses and let it go okay well what you must understand is that sheep have some intrinsic value now that might be financial value for a lot of farmers in some cases it might even be sentimental value where people see their sheep more as pets or whatever else but but sheep have some in some value whether financial sentimental or otherwise so if a man is prepared to go out and get one sheep when he's already got 99 other sheep there must still be some value to that sheep to make it worth going through this effort okay because if you had a bag of a hundred sweets and you lost a sweet you're not going to go looking for that sweet you'd count it as a loss okay and even if you drop that sweet on a dirty floor you'd probably still throw it away okay you would count that as a loss so to go out and get a sheep there must be some value to this sheep to make it worth going out for okay so then more over Jesus even made a commitment uh so you know if any man other than Jesus will go out and do this well obviously it stands to reason that Jesus will do this if he's the good shepherd so Jesus made a commitment in John 10 I give or I lay my life down for the sheep I know my sheep and I am known of my sheep and no man is able to pluck my sheep out of my hand that those are all the commitments that Jesus made to his sheep in John chapter 10 okay so then when moving from plate sheep from place to place so if your sheep have expired all of their food in this field and you need to move them across to this field the shepherd has a specific duty to keep the flock together to ensure that the sheep do not scatter that's his job that is his responsibilities not while the sheep need to make sure that they're staying with the flock the shepherd has a job to do to keep the sheep together okay so typically uh as far as I understand it the shepherd leads from the front and sheep can be trained to follow certain signals to some extent or you know if this food involved they'll probably follow but the shepherd may also require the aid of servants and other herders now the predatory nature of dogs means that obviously dogs can be trained to be sheep dogs and herd as well this practice does go back several thousands of years even in western Asia but it is questionable how much they would be utilized in a Jewish society because livitically they were unclean animals so I'm not sure how much they would have utilized sheep dogs but but nevertheless the principle is there you you can use a sheep dog to do this as well to to act as a herder so some herders may be healers in that they lead from the back and some may be headers in that they they lead from the front so whatever the scenario the shepherd or his team need to keep the flock together they need to create an artificial perimeter around the sheep to prevent breakoff groups so the objective is to keep the flock together you don't want any groups splintering off and breaking into their own groups you keep the flock together that's his job that's what he's supposed to do okay now then conditional security advocates uh they they create a false paradigm to get around this passage which is not really very consistent with the chapter so under their model they'll say well the sheep you have free will you can wander off so the sheep will wander away from the protection of the shepherd where they may be consumed by the wolf if they don't turn back and they'll equate that with with losing his salvation and so Jesus essentially has to say there well the sheep can leave his own own free will I won't bother to go out you know maybe he'll come back if it repents and you know gets his salvation back but you know if he doesn't do that then the wolves will get to him first so you know that this is all left up to the sheep to decide what he's going to do the shepherd doesn't go out for it here and this is under their model and then the wolf is there waiting to devour the sheep that that's not under the protection of the shepherd anymore and I've I've covered that in another video where I exposed Epiucion apologetics because this was the kind of argument that he was making to say that we can lose our salvation well this presents us with a couple of issues okay according to the parable of the lost sheep the shepherd goes out for the sheep the sheep the sheep don't do their own about turn to find their way back it's the shepherd going out for the sheep now again the context is different but that's what the parable is now also if we look at verse 12 in John chapter 10 the wolf is not out there in the wild you know sneaking around waiting to consume any sheep that happen to go astray the bible actually says in in John 10 12 that the wolf actually comes towards the flock of sheep now if if someone was a hiling he would see the wolf coming and he would run away from the sheep and then the wolf could get all of the sheep okay but because Jesus is the good shepherd and he even lays his life down for the sheep the wolf is going towards the entire flock of sheep even with the shepherd there okay the wolf is not out there somewhere waiting for any sheep that happen to go astray and there's no shepherd to protect them so the conditional security model is completely wrong with how this passage has framed this parable okay now an objection that they might take to the another objection they'll take to this passage is that well no other man can pluck you from out of his hand but that doesn't mean that you yourself can't walk away from Christ and how they might reason this is that the word pluck is synonymous with the word snatched which is typically an action associated with taking something or seizing something or some someone else you don't you don't seize yourself you don't pluck yourself you don't snatch yourselves that that's how they reason that objection now the first problem with their interpretation is that verses 28 and 29 they don't say any other man shall not pluck them out of my hand they just simply say any man or no man is able to pluck them out and so Jesus could have just said other if that's what he wanted us to think so the conclusion is then that you are included in any or no man okay but then the second problem is that these verses use absolute language rather than conditional language because it's conditional security while there's no conditional language he is it does you know it does not say if they follow me where I go then they shall never perish and no man is able to pluck them he just says I know them they follow me I give them onto them they never perish neither shall any man pluck them there's no further conditions here so the prospect of a sheep that stops following him is simply not addressed and not available here okay now the third problem is that if if a sheep were let's just entertain them and say that a sheep were to wander away okay well something or someone drew them away so a saved person so-called did not just wake up one day and say hey I want to lose my salvation because why not okay if somebody departs from the faith and they leave Christianity what drew them away or who drew them away you know was was he listening to an atheist debunk Christianity with science was he listening to some other gospel or some other truth or some weird heresy okay was he listening to a hater of God explain how horrible they think the bible is and now he agrees with them did the children of this world tempt him with the pleasures of sin was he afraid that his safety or relationships would be affected by his belief and so if someone quote unquote lost their salvation or eternal life well then something or someone must have plucked them out of Jesus hand and so if we trust Jesus to fill what he said he would then wandering from the faith only works the only way this can work is if the Lord was not holding on to their hand in the first place and if he wasn't holding on to their hand they were never saved okay that you can't say that they had eternal life otherwise you have to accuse Jesus of being a liar or a failure by not succeeding in what he said he set out to do okay the fourth problem is that Jesus explained this twofold so as well as his own hand holding on to us he also explained that the father's hand is holding on to us also and Jesus goes on to explain that the father is greater than all okay you or your hand is not greater than the father's hand okay so there's another problem with you just walking away from Christ the father's holding on to your hand in you no man is greater well you're not greater than his hand either okay another considerable problem then with all that stuff that we've just been looking at with the value of sheep and all that kind of stuff another consideral problem with losing our salvation is the severe misunderstanding about how the concept of ownership actually works so let's look at how this works so consider the fact that you've you've got property you've got things that you own as property and then you've got things that you own kind of as non-property if you like and then you've got things that you don't own okay and then you've got things that you have a strong sentimental or emotional attachment to and things that you don't have a strong attachment to so your pets such as your dog or cat may be legally considered property they do not have the same degree of autonomy as a person but you may still have very strong sentimental attachment to them as if they were a member of your family right your children and your spouse are not strictly speaking your property that's not really the right word but they do they do have some degree of autonomy at least and they do have a belonging to you you know they're your children or they're your wife or your husband or whatever so you kind of own them in the sense of them not being your property and then you've got your friends and family members outside of your home that do not belong to you but they they have a strong value to you emotionally sentimentally your friends whatever and then obviously there's things that you own as property but they are just property they're not living things you don't have a strong attachment to them now I understand that some of you may have a strong attachment to your car or your house but you know it's only a matter of time when that thing breaks down you're getting another one but your children are not equally as replaceable so your personal belongings are your property but beyond that not all of those items really have a strong value to you and even if you do have some strong value value on your things you know eventually they'll wear and tear and you'll replace them with something else eventually you'll decide I need a new house or a new car so you don't have a strong attachment to that item as you would a member of the family okay now sheep technically speaking are property okay especially in the ancient world even more so than now so while shepherds may or may not have some sentimental attachment to them they have very very limited free will as we expose you know they can go up and down but they're still limited in free will according to the confines of the shepherd as we explored earlier so language indicates here that Jesus places much stronger value on his sheep given that he's willing to lay their life down for him so yes they are property but sheep does have a strong attachment to them as if they were people okay like you would your family or you know your pets or whatever okay so if we understand that sheep are valuable property well in the ancient world where farming was the most common occupation a person's wealth could be measured by the size of his flock and very often the bible does use the size of flock as a measure of wealth or you know a description of wealth these are valuable assets that need protecting okay now in the modern world sheep may be considered less valuable proportionally to other types of property but nevertheless a farmer must still protect these assets anyway because the profit margins for farming are actually very small or very fragile and on some years farmers can actually lose money okay so consider the fact that the farmer spends hundreds of pounds or dollars if you will on the purchase of sheep and then obviously if you're buying a whole flock of sheep well that your costs amount to thousands of pounds or tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pounds or dollars you know but it's just so expensive to buy a flock of sheep and arrange all the fencing and buy this and buy that and set up this set up that you know get your sheep dog get your hired servants and so on now in the UK my country sheep's wool uh their woolen coats if you shave a whole sheep that that amount of wool that you get is now worth less than one pound or even in the United States it would amount to less than a dollar okay now it might amount to maybe roughly a canadian dollar or an australian dollar but perhaps even less than that okay their their woolen coats are almost worthless they're worth so little money and yet the shepherd has spent so much money on his flock now a farmer will already lose some of his sheep to injury and disease and various other reasons so even if sheep are worth much less today they're still very valuable to protect if you're if you have any hope of turning a profit if you're going to farm sheep and you're going to incur all of this cost you have a profit that you need to turn and so even you're keeping your sheep they're still valuable assets that you want to protect you're not just going to let a sheep wander off and just well I hope that some of them will make it to the end no you need to keep as many of those sheep protected and you know valuable as you can okay so it's not in a shepherd's interest to just let sheep wander off and go their own way and let them have their own free will sheep are far too valuable okay and their property they belong to the shepherd shepherd's need to protect their assets and protect their profit margins you know in actual application so you can quickly see then how conditional security and their free will argument falls apart very quickly because they say well you have free will you can just wander off well then why isn't the shepherd going out and protecting his sheep because in a parable about sheep and shepherding that's what you would go out and do you don't just let sheep wander off it doesn't happen okay so what does all of this information teach us then well it's the shepherd's responsibility to keep the flock together and to protect his sheep and since they are his property he is obliged to hold on to them okay if Jesus is the good shepherd then he must succeed in fulfilling his responsibility and so we can then see why John chapter 10 doesn't address the prospect of a sheep wandering away and losing its salvation because that would violate the principle of Jesus being a good shepherd okay so the prospect of a believer wandering from the faith is just simply incompatible with this passage John 10 does not even address this issue directly okay we just we have no example of this in John chapter 10 but then it does remain to be answered you know what about all of the verses in the Bible about departing from the faith why would the Bible give us all of these warnings if eternal security were actually true well we did explain this earlier in the series when we looked at John chapter 6 because there were examples of people falling away in that chapter but we can further build on this with what we've learned from John chapter 10 and again the concepts of ownership and the foreign knowledge of Jesus helps us to understand how departing from the faith actually works regarding salvation so just to bring some of them up you know you've got like 1 Timothy 4 1 says depart from the faith 1 Corinthians 15 2 gives a condition if you keep in memory otherwise you have believed in vain in Luke 8 Jesus describes the the parable of the seeds and there's those that believe for a while and then in time of temptation fall away Hebrew 6 4 to 6 talks about those who fall away that it's impossible to renew the monetary repentance 2 Peter 2 talks about people again being entangled there in an overcome you've got John 15 if a man abide not in me he's cast forth as a branch and they're cast into the fire so these are just some of the many verses that people would confront you with is the proof text if you like that you can lose salvation because you can depart from the faith you could you can fall away etc etc well we have already really established the prospects of a sheet wandering away it's simply not addressed in in John 10 but because of those verses let's picture this as if it were the case that the sheep wanders away from the shepherd okay well in the conditional security framework this sheep has lost its salvation so we've got the shepherd he's leading his sheep one drifts apart from the flock and he's the one that's cast forth as a branch falls away departs from the faith believes in vain and tangled again there in you know whatever verses you would use to say that you know this happened well the only way for this pattern to work is that Jesus despite being the good shepherd does not go out for the this this lost sheep someone or something was able to pluck the sheep from out of his hand if a wolf were to come and devour the sheep the shepherd does not lay his life down for it and the sheep does not hear Jesus voice and does not follow him when he leads so if if Jesus is the good shepherd why did he not fulfill his commitments why did he not go out for the lost sheep when he said that any man would do so why did he allow the sheep to be plucked from out of his hand when he said that no man is able why did he do not lay down his life for the sheep why did this sheep not hear his voice and follow him when he leads and again it's important to understand how ownership works in the context of the shepherd knowing his own sheep now remember we explored this earlier sheep have limited free will okay they have free will but in the confines of the shepherd who still wants to keep his flock intact okay they are his property well the shepherd needs to be able to identify his own sheep versus those who are not his because he said I know my sheep and my sheep that the sheep need to know his voice in order to follow it right well it's a common practice to mark sheep in some way whether that's with dye or with tags or whatever that they are identifiable particularly in situations where sheep could go missing or be mixed with other flocks and this helps farmers to identify their own sheep versus those belonging to to other farmers or from other farms so as we've already seen it's not in the owner's interest to just let sheep wander away and not bother to go out and recover them or identify them otherwise you know why go in such great efforts to to mark them like this if sheep did go astray well Jesus you know Jesus would go out for the lost sheep and would he be easily be able to identify those that are his because he knows his sheep if a sheep did end up in the wrong place or heard the markings would help shepherds and farmers to identify the sheep that belong to them okay so if you are not a shepherd of the farm these markings will be meaningless to you now many of us you know we know that sheep are vaguely marked like this but very few of us would would really know what these markings mean you know I would not be able to tell you what farmer sheep belongs on because of what paint it's got on and I'm not quite sure how clear the tag would be either so if you saw a flock of sheep you wouldn't easily recognize one that doesn't belong with the rest of them okay if you saw a wandering sheep on its own you wouldn't necessarily know who it belonged to if there were multiple possible farms nearby you didn't know very much about tagging okay so you was somebody who was not a shepherd you wouldn't necessarily intrinsically know all of this stuff but you know that the shepherds or the farmers using this system would have some understanding of what they're actually doing with it okay so if Jesus is leading a sheep and there's one that does not follow him not hearing his voice and Jesus does not go out to recover for it the only way for this to work is if this sheep does not belong to Jesus Jesus does not know the sheep he does not care for it and the sheep does not recognize his voice okay so then the sheep that does not abide in Christ departs from the faith falls away or is cast off the sheep that does not belong to the shepherd okay if if they are not a sheep if this type of sheep that falls away is not his sheep it can't you can't say that that sheep was at one point safe because that means that then it was cry sheep either it's cry sheep or it's not his sheep it really is one of those two we've got two types of sheep to work with from John chapter 10 Jesus is only obliged to go out for the sheep that belong to him sheep that do not belong to him do not recognize his voice so it's not expected that they should follow him and it's not expected that Jesus should go after it so if one sheep goes astray and Jesus goes after it well how think you if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray does he not leave the 99 and goes into the mountains and seeks the one that is gone astray why does Jesus do this because he said no man is able to pluck them from out of my hand okay Jesus got to fulfill what he said he would fulfill now if another sheep goes astray and Jesus does not go after it well you know what as we saw in John chapter 6 there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believe not and who should betray him and he said therefore I said unto you that no man can come to me except it were giving him of my father from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him but you believe not because you are not of my sheep as I said unto you okay that's why they go astray Jesus knew from the beginning they believe not so then this also helps us to understand why in passages such as John 15 Jesus uses language such as cast forth as a branch okay or cast you know into the fire because at first glance yes it would seem counter-intuitive or contradictory language if eternal security is true but then all we have to do is just apply this to sheep if a sheep does not belong to the shepherd but is standing in the field with all the sheep it doesn't belong there so it needs ejecting and returning to its rightful owner or you know Satan or the world if you will unsaved people do not belong in Christ's fault they should not be in his pasture okay so that's again you can understand why Jesus then uses that kind of language cast forth as a branch you know being rejected in that way the father cuts them off because that they shouldn't be with them okay so it makes perfect sense with this chapter and the sheep that departs from the faith it doesn't belong he shouldn't have been there in the first place that's why Jesus never went after it that's why he didn't hear an up and follow his voice okay now an objection then to what I've just said they might throw is that the Bible does place responsibility on us to keep ourselves so then how can we just assume that everything is left to Jesus and it's up to him to hold on to us you know shouldn't we also do our part quote unquote and some of the verses that they'll use for this you've got like one Timothy 4 15 it says continue in the doctrine because you will you know by continuing there's that word save yourself or you've got Jew 21 keep yourselves in the love of God looking for mercy onto eternal life you've got 2nd Timothy 4 7 you know I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith you've got Revelation 14 12 here is the patience of the saints that they keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus so there's verses about you keeping the faith you know that that's your responsibility so to understand that then it helps to understand how you keeping the faith ties in with Jesus holding on to his sheep and can consider carefully what's your areas of responsibility and what's Christ's area of responsibility okay we've already seen this pattern throughout our study of John's gospel so far so Christ's responsibility well Christ gives eternal life to those that the Father gives him there are those who believe and are his sheep there are those who are not he only needs to hold on to his own sheep doesn't need to hold on to sheep that don't belong to him okay and of his own sheep well I will lose nothing the Son of Man came to save that which was lost going out for the lost sheep I give on to the eternal life and no man is able to plug them so Jesus has given us two types of people consistently throughout John's gospel there's those that believe and are his sheep and there's those that don't believe and are not his sheep now should anybody believe for a while them for the ways the parable of the so it tells as well John 6 explained that he categorizes them as Jesus knew from the beginning who believe not and who should betray so they get filed under that category somebody believes for a while and stops believing they're filed under Jesus knew from the beginning who believe not so your responsibilities are well your primary responsibility as we've seen throughout our study in this series is that your responsibility is to believe on him okay many many verses have said this it's been very emphasized believe on me the one who was God sent so continue in the doctrine and in the love of God look at this mercy so there's plenty of verses about obeying Jesus commandments too obviously but we are talking about the responsibilities for eternal life your responsibility is to believe on him that's the thing that you're told to do for this everlasting life so you know this has already been explained multiple times up to now in this series but let's just look at it in a chart again so we've got the guy who gets saved and he continues he keeps the faith onto the very end well my sheep hear my voice and know me what man doesn't leave the 99 sheep to find the one I know my sheep no man shall ever be plucked out of the hand well that's this guy right here okay he was saved onto everlasting life he continued in that faith and Jesus held on to him now the guy that believed for a while and then fell away he kept not the faith he departed well you are not of my sheep Jesus knew from the beginning who believed no he was never saved in this period okay because Jesus has already foreseen this outcome okay that's why he didn't continue he didn't keep the faith he fell away he doesn't belong to Jesus okay Jesus has absolutely no obligations to this man whatsoever okay now so far we we have focused more on following Jesus in faith believe not you know we've not really addressed following him in works so this might leave that question unresolved then you know what if a sheep belongs to Jesus but is entangled in seriousness you know would Jesus have to have the sheep put down quote unquote well the problem is is that that that's simply outside the the context of John chapter 10 so to even go through that we would have we would have to digress from John chapter 10 but one of the characteristics of sheep is that they are more docile and meek than say goats who you know more individualistic and goats are more mischievous but you know not all characteristics of sheep are positive can consider also that sheep are quite timid fearful easily panicked they have a mob psychology obviously these are not the kind of characteristics that would be befitting for believers so a discussion about sheep isn't really appropriate for the context of a believer that's entangled in sin a more appropriate analogy for that would be the father and son relationship and the chastisement of beliefs which you know we've dealt with on this channel we've answered those kind of things in other videos now notwithstanding if there was a sheep that was a bit difficult to control well shepherds do have tools such as crooks and herding dogs to discipline sheep and keep them on subjection and you know we must also consider that sheep you know if sheep didn't go astray from time to time then the parable of the lost sheep wouldn't even make any sense okay but the same principle applies that the shepherd would go out for him okay so pitting the sheep against the goats then so again the idea of a mischievous sheep isn't really you know conceptualized it's not really a characteristic of sheep compared to goats but then that does leave us on to the next point about you know what about the sheep and the goats continuing this sheep theme you might ask about Matthew 25 which is where this is mentioned about how Jesus is going to separate the goats and separate the sheep and obviously in John 6 we've seen that the sheep are those who follow him and so he's going to divide them in two and this does seem to be relevant to salvation because it's explained later that the sheep are the righteous ones inheriting the kingdom and the goats are the ones cursed and cast into everlasting fire well Matthew 25 does require its own study I can't really delve too much into it in this video because we'd be moving away from John 10 but in Matthew 25 what you have to bear in mind is Jesus is not telling unsaved people how to inherit eternal life he's explaining how he's going to separate two types of people at the judgment so the ones that the righteous sheep well they're flock animals they behave more predictively that they're easier to move in herds goats they're more individualistic agile they they foraging areas you know rather than gray so they're more inclined to go in areas where sheep wouldn't normally go sheep have a flock behavior they like to stay together normally okay that's why it's easier for the shepherd to move a herd of sheep whereas goats they're a lot harder to control they do go their own way they can be very mischievous and it may be said that sheep herders protect their sheep from the environment whereas goat herders protect the environment from their goats and I found that on a website uh listed down here which is a secular source you know it's not trying to make the bible look right or anything so in the bring that back to John chapter 10 then how do how do the sheep hear and follow the voice of the shepherd as opposed to the voice of the goats that go their own way well it's again this is perfectly simple the shepherd said whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life this is the father's will which has sent me that of all which he has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day the shepherd said I am the good shepherd and I lay my life down for the sheep well what do all these other people say they say things like repent of your sins to be saved they say surrender your life to be cried it's Christ to be saved well no that's actually what the shepherd said down here he said I lay my life down they say things like you need to do the father's will that means do works of obedience to be saved well no that's not how the shepherd defined it here all they'll say well no other man can pluck you out of his hand but you can still abandon the shepherd well that's not how shepherding works so all these things these are all the voices of the goats that go their own way the sheep are the ones that follow the shepherd's voice and this is what he told you to do for eternal life okay so in summary then what we can learn from John chapter 10 which which reconfirms and complements what we learned in John 6 also is that anybody who departs from the faith believes in vain they were never saved because Jesus would hold on to his own sheep so if one of Jesus own sheep went missing he would leave the 99 and go out and find it having said that conditional or eternal security was not the context of that parable anyway okay the context was was going out and reaching the loss so you know that that's not even really a conditional security proof or anything like that because that's not really the but the the principle is still there that the shepherd would go out for his lost sheep Jesus sheep hear his voice they know him and he knows them they are his sheep they are his property he will not let anybody plucked from out of his hand so if a sheep departs from the flock and this is equatable with not keeping the faith it was never saved because such sheep does not belong to Jesus therefore Jesus did not go out to recover it and did not fulfill his obligations to hold on to it okay if the sheep does not listen to the voice of the shepherd and has its own way of salvation they turn from his sins to be saved types they surrender your life to Christ to be saved types it's listening to the voice of the stranger or the thieves and robbers it does not belong to the shepherd okay Jesus's sheep they belong to him they are his property they don't just get to wander off and get devoured by a wolf that's not how shepherding works so with the sheep and the shepherd out of the way will be very brief on the last bit you know it won't take long to do the rest of it but the chapter goes on to say then the Jews took up stones against stoning Jesus answered them many good works have I showed you from my father for which of those works do you stone me the Jews answered him saying for a good work we stone you not but for blasphemy and because that you being a man makes yourself God Jesus answered them is not is it not written in your law I said you are gods if he called them gods onto whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken say you of him who the father has sanctified and sent into the world you blaspheme because I said I am the son of God if I do not the works of my father believe me not but if I do though you believe not me believe the works that you may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him therefore they sought again to take him but he escaped out of their hand and went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized and there he abode and many resorted on to him and said John did no miracle but all things that John spoke of this man were true and many believed on him there so we see this chapter coming to a very predictable end now the Jews saw Jesus miracles first hand they still didn't believe him and get very repetitive theme that we've seen in in John's gospel people often have a false understanding of how miracles actually work or for what purpose the miracles is in turning us towards faith in Christ and the things like well if we could just you know do all these mighty miracles people would believe in Jesus but people here saw these miracles and still didn't believe him now there isn't really too much salvation doctrine we need to extract from these last passages as the conversation moves more towards Jesus role as the son of God not about the methods to be saved specifically but the very purpose of Jesus works in his miracles was to demonstrate that he is from the father the son of God rather than just anybody claiming to be the Messiah okay so we see a repeating pattern here that the Jews saw his works they couldn't even dispute these works notice in verse 33 they couldn't even argue really that you know they couldn't say that he didn't do the work they didn't deny that he did the works but they rejected his claim to sonship which would make him equivalent with God Jesus further stresses in verses 37 to 38 that even if they stumble on the issue of believing him according to his own testimony you know they can't just take his word for it at least believe him based on the works that they saw and could not could not dispute you and after all the the Jews would claim to believe that the words of Moses came from God and this was demonstrated by Moses being able to perform several miracles such that he would be as God to Pharaoh this is why Jesus quotes the Psalm you are gods now you might wonder why the Old Testament uses such terminology to to call you know why does it call them God's plural but the thing is to explain that would really digress too far from the topic of salvation but in summary that it is because of the Psalm that Jesus quoting that he has the right to be called the Son of God because by doing the works of the Father he is the representative of God you know he's God manifest in the flesh so we see at the end of this chapter that many others did believe on Christ though those who had been baptized by John the Baptist and repented his teaching they then got to see Christ fulfilling what John the Baptist foretold so that concludes our study of John 10 so thank you very much for your time and I hope that helps you and very soon we'll be working towards John chapter 11 for this series